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TVs master of bawd draws line at gay sex

HE is known for “sexing up” literary classics such as Vanity Fair and Moll Flanders with bodice-ripping scenes that have verged on the gratuitous. But now Andrew Davies has balked at the idea of portraying gay sex for his latest screenplay.

The writer has omitted homosexual scenes from an adaptation of The Line of Beauty, last year’s Booker prize-winning novel, which follows the fortunes of a gay Tory in the 1980s.

He was put off by a combination of personal distaste and a belief that, despite increasingly liberal attitudes to sex, the public still has a limited appetite for watching men in bed together.

Davies has dodged the challenge by simply writing the instruction “they make love” in the script.

“The gay sex makes me rather queasy,” said Davies, who also adapted Pride and Prejudice for television. “I suspect the television audience also finds it awkward. Anyway, I’m more interested